Critique my first build

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spartans1551

Commendable
Jul 1, 2016
9
0
1,510
Hello,

What do you think about this for a first build? The GPU is a placeholder until Vega comes out, and I am not planning on overclocking but wanted to get something as future proof as possible, so I went with an I7 that's on sale at my local Microcenter. I had no idea which Motherboard to pick, so I went with what was moderately priced and had the highest ratings. I was debating between this MSI and the Asus MAXIMUS VIII HERO at $200, but opted for the former because I couldn't see any significant difference between the two to explain the higher price; instead, I invested that $30 into 16 GB of RAM that fits into the Black/Red theme of my build. Finally, I wanted to give myself headroom for Crossfire when Vega releases and given how power hungry the last generation of top end AMD cards was, decided to go with a 1000 PSU to be safe.

So, what would you do differently in my position?

Thanks.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Motherboard: MSI Z170A GAMING M5 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($172.88 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($88.48 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon RX 480 8GB Video Card ($239.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Corsair Carbide 400C ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ Best Buy)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 P2 1000W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($169.89 @ OutletPC)
Other: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz LGA 1151 Boxed Processor ($279.99)
Total: $1168.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-28 13:46 EDT-0400
 
Solution
geofelt
I like the asus motherboards.
They include a holder to be able to drop your cpu into the motherboard without damaging the pins.
they also include a nice frame for your front panel leads.

The intel stock cooler is tricky to mount, and it is noisy under load.
Buy a $30 cryorig H7 or a noctua NH-U12s. Noctua has the simplest mount ever.
Applying paste is simple; just a rice sized drop in the center will spread out under heat and pressure.

For a nearly similar price, the i7-6700K at stock runs at 4.0 compared to 3.4 for the i7-6700.
Plus, 85% will overclock to 4.5 or better if you ever want to oc.

I have no problem overprovisioning a PSU a bit. Say 20%.
It will run cooler, quieter, and more efficiently in the middle third of it's...
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geofelt

geofelt

Titan
Oct 9, 2006
54,379
4,185
174,240
The i7-6700 is not overclockable so you could just as well do with a cheaper motherboard. Any lga1151 motherboard will work equally well. Actually, if I could, I would return the i7-6700 in favor of a I7-6700K or if your main use is for gaming, the i5-6600K.

1000w is WAAY overkill for a RX 480. 650w is all that would be needed for CF(which I do not recommend anyway).
 
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S

spartans1551

Commendable
Jul 1, 2016
9
0
1,510


Thanks for the reply.

Which motherboard would you recommend? Aside from reliability, the other major concern would be to keep with the red/black theme I have going. I decided against overclocking mainly because it requires installing a third party cooler and I am afraid of botching the thermal paste application process all for what seem to be relatively negligible FPS gains in most games.

As for the PSU, I want the opportunity to Crossfire vega when it comes out and the last generation of AMD's top end Fury X cards was extremely power hungry.
 
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geofelt

geofelt

Titan
Oct 9, 2006
54,379
4,185
174,240
I like the asus motherboards.
They include a holder to be able to drop your cpu into the motherboard without damaging the pins.
they also include a nice frame for your front panel leads.

The intel stock cooler is tricky to mount, and it is noisy under load.
Buy a $30 cryorig H7 or a noctua NH-U12s. Noctua has the simplest mount ever.
Applying paste is simple; just a rice sized drop in the center will spread out under heat and pressure.

For a nearly similar price, the i7-6700K at stock runs at 4.0 compared to 3.4 for the i7-6700.
Plus, 85% will overclock to 4.5 or better if you ever want to oc.

I have no problem overprovisioning a PSU a bit. Say 20%.
It will run cooler, quieter, and more efficiently in the middle third of it's range.
A PSU will only use the wattage demanded of it, regardless of it's max capability.

That said, new graphics cards are using less power than before, not more.
A graphics upgrade is better done with a good single card anyway.
 
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Solution
S

spartans1551

Commendable
Jul 1, 2016
9
0
1,510



On second thought, you may very well be right about overclocking; but If I'm doing this, I might as well tick all the boxes and go with liquid cooling especially since the thermal paste it comes pre-applied with negates my anxiety about doing the paste myself.

How does this new build look? I also went with a slightly lower capacity PSU at 850, which should still give me headroom for crossfire in the future.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i v2 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($104.99 @ B&H)
Motherboard: MSI Z170A GAMING M5 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($172.88 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($88.48 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon RX 480 8GB Video Card ($239.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Corsair Carbide 400C ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ Best Buy)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1143.79
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-28 16:20 EDT-0400
 
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